There is currently a global concern surrounding both the depletion and the increasing cost of oil. Another concern has been the use of potable water to produce the electricity. Wind power is one of the few options that uses no water resources to produce electricity.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,964,978 discloses a wind turbine having a blade ring that uses magnetic levitation. Specifically, this reference describes a wind turbine with a ring-encased propeller with a magnetic levitating bearing and generator in one unit. However, the “blade ring” has a simple round cross section.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,722,326, 6,664,880, and 6,758,146 and U.S. Patent Application Publication 2005/0204948 describe the Inductrack system. The Inductrack system uses a type of Halbach arrangement and induces electricity and magnetic fields as components of the system pass over each other.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,124 discloses the Winflex system, which uses an inflatable ring. Specifically, the Winflex Inflatable Light Flexible Wind Turbine is a wind turbine propeller encased in a flexible, inflatable ring with light-weight propeller blades. However, the Winflex system has a central shaft and a conventional generator, gearbox, and nacelle. In high winds the Winflex propeller can sustain great damage as it is not supported from behind and the inflatable ring is flexible and very light weight and may be blown away.
The Windtronics “Blade Tip Power System,” now sold under Honeywell, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,341. The wind turbine has a permanent magnet generator around a perimeter in an annular shroud encasing a propeller that has no shaft or gearbox.
The “Wind Lens Turbine” of Dr. Yuji Ohya (see http://www.greenoptimistic.com/2010/08/07/wind-lens-turbine/ and http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/3/4/634/pdf) and the “Vortec 7” and “Jet Accelerated Wind Turbine” of Sterling (see www.All-Natural-Energy.com) attempt an aerodynamically improved ring with an open propeller fitted into the opening. However, these designs are not split in two sections, nor are they attached to a central split jacket column. In addition, the ring is not a generator on these systems, nor is it suspended in a maglev bearing. Conventional propellers that fit inside the opening are used.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,700,216 describes a magnetically levitated windmill supported by an arched bottom and a top section of coils with electromagnetic generators which can be activated progressively to maximize power output.
Current wind turbines need a high wind speed to start rotating, are plagued with maintenance problems, are difficult to deploy and may experience blade fractures because of the continuously growing sizes, which result in costlier manufacturing, transport, installation and operation, so it is an object of this invention to provide a turbine with improved features as a new means of energy supply in a small or a grid scale.